Glow-in-the-dark brain tumour aids precise surgery

Brain surgery in the dark? It may sound crazy, but when the patient has been given a fluorescent chemical that soaks into tumour cells, hitting the lights makes the difficult work of removing brain tumours a bit easier.

Like a white shirt under a nightclub's black lights, the gray matter glows neon under UV light, helping surgeons clearly identify where the cancerous cells end and where the healthy cells begin, which limits unnecessary damage.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge are testing this new technique on over 60 patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common and most harmful type of tumour that originates in the brain.